This invention rlates to containers and more particularly to containers formed from stiff, resilient and bendable sheet material, such as corrugated paperboard. The invention also relates to a one-piece blank, such as of corrugated paperboard, for making the container tray of this invention.
The invention exhibits particular utility in the packaging of poultry and fish, wherein poultry or fish is placed into a tray, along with crushed ice. The tray is filled with the poultry or fish and the crushed ice, a top cover is placed on the tray to form a complete container, with the container then being ready for stacking and shipment. Conventionally, such trays are formed from one or more pieces of corrugated paperboard and are coated on at least their interior surface with wax. It is clearly desirable to have available a tray, preferably formed from a single blank, which may be readily erected by folding along pre-scored hinged lines, in order that personnel at a processing point may readily form the erected trays, as they are needed, from a supply of flat blanks.
Somewhat similar tray constructions are known in the prior art, as for example that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,417,686 issued to Wozniacki. It has been found that octagonal trays exhibit greater strength than rectangular trays and the practice of this invention permits the use of an octagonal tray fashioned from a single blank.